After years of silence, The Argentine Foreign Ministry has broken its silence to issue a statement condemning the hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation activities of Navitas Petroleum LP in the Malvina Islands. This company partnered with the British company Rockhopper Exploration to exploit the "Sea Lion" offshore field , operating under an illegal British license and therefore without the necessary Argentine permits.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry reiterates its strongest condemnation of the illegal activities carried out by NAVITAS PETROLEUM LP in the Malvina Islands, which is operating illegally in Argentine territory without the necessary exploration and exploitation permits... pic.twitter.com/udVUDzP9js

The Foreign Ministry's statement underscores the illegality of these activities, calling them contrary to United Nations General Assembly resolutions , which recognize the sovereignty dispute and require the parties to refrain from unilateral actions. Furthermore, three years later, the government recalled that Navitas was declared a clandestine company in 2022 and that it reserves the right to take legal action to safeguard its sovereign rights.

Background and Abandonment of the Judicial Case

The rejection of Navitas is not an isolated incident; it is directly connected to a criminal case initiated in April 2015 , during the administration of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner . At that time, the Office of the Prosecutor for Economic Crime and Money Laundering ( Procelac) and federal prosecutors in Río Grande and Ushuaia launched an investigation against several companies, including Rockhopper Exploration , for conducting illegal activities on the Argentine continental shelf without authorization. The judge in charge, Lilian Herráez de Andino, opened CASE No. 5183/15 and ordered seizures of more than $156 million.

Despite its initial forcefulness, the case was virtually forgotten by the governments of Mauricio Macri and Alberto Fernández . The 2016 Foradori-Duncan Pact , which sought to "remove all obstacles limiting economic growth" in the Malvinas Islands, demonstrated the Macri administration's interest in ending the legal dispute. For its part, the Alberto Fernández administration continued this stance, limiting itself to diplomatic efforts without providing substantive support for the legal action. In 18 months of libertarian government, this is the first expression of this violation of national sovereignty over the Malvinas Question .

In fact, the then director of the Malvinas Islands at the Foreign Ministry, Sandra Pitta , told the Federal Court in Río Grande about the difficulty of notifying and seizing British companies . It was even learned that the Foreign Ministry had challenged the judge's diplomatic requests for the lack of expressions such as "our Malvinas," a technicality that delayed the process and returned it to "square one" in a significant part . The case has managed to stay alive largely thanks to the perseverance of the veterans, who have been the only ones to show sustained interest.

The "Sea Lion" Field: A Large-Scale Project

The Foreign Ministry's statement is set against the backdrop of the ambitious "Sea Lion" project, which has made significant progress despite minimal Argentine objections. Rockhopper Exploration and its majority partner , Navitas Petroleum , plan to exploit this field to generate a shift in the islands' production model; a matter of utmost interest to the British colony that usurps the Malvina Islands from Argentina.

The potential of "Sea Lion" is enormous: it is estimated to hold 917 million barrels of certified oil and 2.1 TCF of recoverable gas . The total projected investment is $4 billion, and the extraction of approximately 80,000 barrels of oil per day is expected.

The Political Moment of the Communiqué

The question that resonates is why, after years of inaction, the current government has decided to issue this statement now. With elections looming and a complex political landscape, the rejection could be interpreted as a strategic move to establish a firm stance on the Malvinas issue , a highly sensitive topic in Argentine public opinion.

The statement not only condemns Navitas' actions but also serves as a warning to other companies and entities, urging them to refrain from participating in illegal activities on Argentine territory. This gesture, although belated, reaffirms Argentina's "legitimate and imprescriptible sovereign rights" over the Malvina Islands .